


How to tame a demon

by SerenaDusk



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Bitter, Blaming, Gen, Post-Weirdmageddon, Resentment, Sharing a Bed, Weirdmageddon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:15:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29756034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerenaDusk/pseuds/SerenaDusk
Summary: Weirdmageddon ended weordly, now the Pines are stuck with a human Bill. What to do with a bitter fallen demon in their house?
Relationships: Dipper Pines & Mabel Pines, Ford Pines & Stan Pines
Comments: 8
Kudos: 12





	How to tame a demon

**It’s still my house, with my rules.**

Weirdmageddon could not have had a stranger turn of events. In the height of the battle, a wing of the Fearmid collapsed due to Bill’s attacks, and it had temporarily cut off the demon from the humans. They didn’t have much time, but Ford knew that now they had one chance to complete the alternative way of defeating Bill Cipher, before he would find a way out of the weirdness bubble and would spread his chaos over the world. He gathered everyone and drew the circle on the ground, explaining what he had learned about the demon. The individuals were chosen, and the circle was forming. Stan was the last one to close it off, when he made that one mistake. But when the six-fingered twin opened his mouth to correct him, the whole structure rumbled on its foundations and interrupted that crucial moment. Bill was about to burst through the blockage of fallen bricks and end them all unless they could complete this. Correcting Stan’s grammar had to wait until they were safe again. After all, being smarter in the face of danger wasn’t always a good idea. Stan had already lost a tooth once because Ford couldn’t keep his mouth shut, and this time they would lose a lot more if he wasn’t careful.

And they made it. This time, right as the wreckage disintegrated, the Zodiac was completed and emitted a golden light that encased them and spread steadily. It washed over Bill, who froze in the middle of an attack, over the fleeing townspeople, the Shackatron, the chaotic wasteland outside Gravity Falls, until the border of the town. But it stayed within the bubble that kept all the anomalies around. Ford felt it as the pull of the portals he had travelled through for 30 years. Stan felt it as the echo of the front door of his childhood home being slammed in his face. Bill experienced it as the moment his home dimension was ripped apart in his anger. To Dipper it was like the moment he found out Ford had once worked with Bill. Mabel as the way her heart broke when she heard Dipper accepting the apprenticeship. Fiddleford shivered when his mind was filled with forgotten memories of the moment, he was pulled through the portal long ago. Wendy and Robbie were overwhelmed with drawbacks to that night in the supermarket. Gideon bit his lip as he ached with the feeling of Mabel’s rejection. Pacifica squeezed the hands she was holding to stop the guilt of her family’s crimes. Soos shed a tear over the generic, thoughtless cards his father had sent him for years. The entire town felt the tremors as they relived memories they wanted to forget. Memories they didn’t want to have anymore.

And then the bubble burst and the feeling were over. The flash dimmed and when the ten heroes opened their eyes, they saw they were standing in the middle of the forest. Gnomes scattered, plaidypus shuffled away and they all dropped to their knees, trying to catch their breath. They all knew how much power had just gone through them, and Ford shot a quick glance at Fiddleford and Stan to make sure neither of them had fully collapsed due to the strain. Luckily, they both seemed shaken up but alright, and the polydactyl let out a sigh in relief. He was about to ask the rest how they were feeling when they were interrupted by a soft groan. Ford immediately jumped up and turned around, followed by the other nine. Their eyes focussed on a slender figure in a yellow waistcoat. He was pushing himself up from his position on the forest ground, and a pale hand ran through yellow hair to remove the leaves and branches. He slowly turned around, a single yellow eye studying black gloved hands. The head raised and the eye widened as the figure backed away, against a tree.

Bill Cipher had been defeated, but not killed. There he was, standing in human form, obviously stripped off his powers in a frankly brutal way. The eye he had was on the left side of his face. The other side was covered up with a patch. Ford was the first to recover from the shock and his hand went to the blaster he kept on his hip. Bill didn’t speak, but studied him with the utmost care, knowing full well he was in a lot of trouble now. All the scenarios he had gone through when initiating Weirdmageddon had been focussed on his success or full failure. Either he would become the ruler of the dimension, or he would have died. Those were the options. Nothing had prepared him for the possibility he would become stuck in a human form, forced to live among the people he tried to eliminate moments ago. Before he could make up his mind of what to do, a hand with a finger too many locked around his wrist. The brown eyes focussed on his face, without so much as a spark of joy. Ford was furious, and rightfully so, although Bill would rather set himself on fire than admit that. His brain was already focussed on finding a way out of this, but the words of the Axolotl rang in his ears. ‘One way to absolve his crime, a different form, a different time.’ Oh no. Everything but this. This was too cruel.

But it was reality. Ford pulled him to the middle of the circle, where the dethroned demon tripped and ended up on his knees. Bill kept his eye on the ground, seething with barely concealed rage. So, this was his punishment? To be tossed around like a ragdoll. No, he wouldn’t accept this. If this was the only way to do penance, he would rather just die. But why would he ever get that luxury? Not here, so much became clear as soon as Stan opened his mouth. “Not so tough anymore is he?” That dry voice irritated the yellow demon to no end. “You would have thought he would enjoy being human, seeing as the fun he had last time.” Dipper sounded highly sarcastic. “It’s what he gets for possessing my brother.” Mabel chimed in. “And breaking promises.” Gideon added drily. “For making everything way harder than it has to be.” Pacifica huffed. “For turning a night out in a trauma party.” Wendy remarked. “Or a date into a zombie apocalypse.” Robbie crossed his arms. “For turning games against people.” Soos shrugged, and Fiddleford spat at the ground. “For ripping everything good to shreds, twisting it into his own nightmare feast.” He concluded. Only Ford stayed silent, internally torn what to do with this. They weren’t murderers, and he didn’t want to turn into one, just for Bill. He turned to Stan and whispered something in his ear. His brother laughed and gave Ford something. The polydactyl walked over to the demon again and clicked the handcuffs around the slim wrists. Bill hissed at him in return.

Ford ignored the protests and hauled the demon up, dragging him along as the Pines family made their way to the Mystery Shack. None of them knew what condition they would find the home in, but when they reached the clearing, they saw that it was in the best shape it could be: worn down and old, but sturdy and their trusted house. Even Ford smiled at the sight of the fallen s in the middle of the field around it. Bill opened his mouth to make a snide remark, but Stan gave him such a menacing look that he thought better of it. The group went inside, and Ford took Bill straight down to the lower regions, where the polydactyl spent most of his time anyway. One of the floors had been converted to a decent sleeping arrangement, with a bedroom kept empty save for a single, spacious bed. Ford had made this room the way it was to stop himself from taking work to bed. Right now, it was the perfect, temporary solution. Nothing here for Bill to mess with and hurt someone. The door was locked, heavily armed, and Bill wasn’t used to actually being human, so even if he was as smart and tricksy as he was as a demon, he still would have a hard time getting out of this. So, Ford locked him in the room, didn’t even bother to take off the handcuffs, and left him there to join his family upstairs to discuss what to do with this.

Bill was still very mad, but eventually managed to get out of the handcuffs. Which wasn’t all that surprising, considering the amount of times Stan had practiced getting in and out of this specific pair. The lock was weakened by now. But even out of the handcuffs, the demon was pretty stuck and had nowhere to go. He had no idea where his friends had gone to, and the only way out was through the house where the full family was. So no, not really much of an option. He punched the wall in frustration but had to admit defeat for now and instead sat down on the bed, eventually going flat to stare at the ceiling and overthink what had happened. Was he dead and was this his afterlife thing? Unlikely, it would have taken longer, and he would have actually seen the Axolotl. So, the Zodiac that could defeat him was a double-edged sword then? More likely, considering the amount of jerk energy it gave off. Very much Axolotl’s style. Completely neutral in its execution. Not a full win for the humans, since they were stuck with Bill, and not a full loss for the demon because he was still alive. In reality it was just a bad deal for all parties involved, except the Axolotl, who didn’t have to deal with any of the consequences. Stupid amphibian god thing. And Jheselbraum was just as bad. She was probably the one who gave Ford all that knowledge in the first place. Sure, they were the almighty prophets and whatnot, he was just the subject of their whims. Bill’s thoughts turned even more bitter, and only stopped when the door opened.

He sat up, hardly surprised to find Ford staring at him from the doorway. “So, you got out of those things?” The polydactyl nodded at the cuffs in the corner. Bill rolled his eye. “I’m not a simpleton, yes I got out.” He sneered and caught the bundle Ford tossed at him. “What’s this?” He asked, suspicious what else the humans were going to do to him. “Pyjamas. You’re staying here until we have a better solution.” Ford sounded angry enough for Bill to not ask questions anymore. He just changed clothes and watched as the polydactyl removed said clothes from the room but sat down on the edge of the bed. He was in his own pyjamas. “Oh, absolutely not.” The demon hissed when he realized what the meaning of this was. Ford glared at him and removed his glasses. “You think I enjoy this, flying corn chip? But we are not leaving you unsupervised at night and I am the only one who you cannot brainwash. We’re pretty sure you lost your powers, but we are not taking more chances.” He snapped and pulled the covers back. “So, either accept it and try to get comfortable, or sleep on the floor and be cold.” Bill removed his eyepatch and tossed it over to Ford’s glasses. “Fine.” He rumbled and slipped under the blanket on the other side.

Both of them were on edge, but too tired to get into much of an argument. The bed was large enough to keep some space between them, but it soon became clear neither had much experience with sharing a bed at all. Ford rolled over, taking the blanket with him. Bill huffed and retaliated immediately. They tugged back and forth for a while until they both had enough cover. After that, they fell asleep. That didn’t last for long, because Bill woke up later to find a cold breeze washing over him. Ford again. Egoistic blanket hogger. The demon huffed again and pulled at the fabric until he could roll himself in it. That warmed him up quickly and he fell asleep again. The polydactyl was a lot less amused and pulled and tugged until he had cover again. This kind of incident repeated a few times that night, and the next morning they were both extremely irritable from the moment they opened their eyes at the same time. Neither cared how, but this had to change somehow. Eventually the polydactyl decided to take Bill upstairs before he would rip the blanket to shreds.

Once there the demon grumbled and whined until everyone gave in and gave him a cup of coffee to avoid going insane themselves. The adults retreated to assess the whole situation, leaving the twins to keep an eye on Bill. Twice they had to threaten to shoot him when he tried to hide a pair of scissors in his coat. Several more times they caught him in the kitchen around the knives or nosing around to find Ford’s collection of weapons. The demon got very frustrated with the way they kept getting in his way and resorted to staring them down until Dipper got very sweaty and went to get Ford before he could do something. The polydactyl then locked Bill up again, taking the bedsheets with him to make sure nothing would happen to them. Bill punched the mattress again but got a lot less mad when Ford brought him a sleeping bag that evening, so they wouldn’t have to share a blanket anymore. They got better sleep for a few days, until the morning Bill woke up, basically draped over Ford due to rolling around in their sleep.

It turned into a long fight. Pillow walls didn’t help, separate beds were impractical, shrinking Bill didn’t do anything, as Ford would nearly crush him because he too had a habit of moving around in his sleep. In the end, there was only one solution, but it took a very long time before they would admit it, and even longer before they would try it out. It did solve their problems almost immediately though. But their past, their pride, and their hatred kept them from ever telling anyone that they slept like this. With Ford wrapping an arm over him from behind, pulling them as close as possible. Until they would be able to trust Bill with not setting the house on fire, this was how they would sleep. Hopefully not too long. It was all way too weird, with everything that had gone on between them.


End file.
